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Space Invaders (Atari 2600 video game)

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For the original arcade game, see Space Invaders.
Space Invaders
Cover art credited to "Norman"[1]
Developer(s)Atari[2]
Publisher(s)Atari[2]
Designer(s)Rick Maurer
SeriesSpace Invaders
Platform(s)Atari 2600
ReleaseMarch 10, 1980
Genre(s)Shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Space Invaders is a 1980 video game based on Taito's arcade game Space Invaders (1978) for the Atari 2600.[a] It was developed and released by Atari, Inc. and designed and developed by Rick Maurer. The game is based on the arcade game in which a player operates a laser cannon to shoot at incoming enemies from outer space. Maurer's version has unique graphics and offers some gameplay variations. These include a two-player mode and variations that allow for invisible enemies and moving shields, and for enemies shots to zig zag and potentially hit players.

Prior to working at Atari, Maurer developed games at Fairchild Semiconductor. When joining Atari, he was impressed with the Space Invaders arcade game and began developing it in his own time at the company. The game had little interest from the staff, until Ray Kassar saw how well Space Invaders was doing in arcades, which led him to get the rights to the game for the Atari 2600 and to Maurer completing his code.

Space Invaders would be one of Atari's biggest hits in 1980, with Electronic Games magazine referring to it as a console seller for the system.[4] It became one of the best-selling games for the Atari 2600. When Maurer was only compensated with an $11,000 bonus for the success of the game, he left the company and never developed another Atari 2600 game. The success of Space Invaders led to Atari seeking out other arcade titles from other companies to publish for home consoles from companies such as Namco and Centuri.

Gameplay

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Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 features unique graphics and creature designs from the original arcade game.

Space Invaders has the player at war with enemies from outer space. The player uses the joystick to move left and right and hit the red button fire a laser cannon. The goal is to earn as many points as you can by destroying the enemies with a laser cannon and to eliminate as many of them as you can before they reach the bottom of the screen or before you are hit three times by their own laser attacks. The further rows of aliens give the player more points when hit. If you destroy 36 of them, a new set will appear. In a single-player game, a Command Alien ship will periodically move across the top of the screen. It is worth 100 points.[5]

The Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders alters the gameplay of the arcade Space Invaders. It features 36 invaders instead of 55 and only features three defence bunkers instead of four. The game offered various variations on gameplay, such the ability to have moving bunkers, shots that zig-zag, invisible invaders who would only reveal their position when they were hit by the player successfully.[6] The Atari version of Space Invaders also included a co-operative two-player mode that was not present in any form in the arcade game.[7] There are two variations of play in two-player mode, a partnered mode, where each player can move left or right respectively and both can fire the cannon. Another allows for one player to control the cannon and the other to control the movement of their ship.[5]

Development

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The Atari version of Space Invaders was developed by Rick Maurer.[6] Prior to working for Atari, Inc., Maurer worked at Fairchild Semiconductor developing the games such as Pinball Challenge and Hangman for the Fairchild Channel F.[8] Atari had released their system the Atari 2600 towards the end of 1977. It was initially released with nine titles available, five of which (Air-Sea Battle, Combat, Star Ship, Surround and Video Olympics) were based on existing arcade properties (Anti-Aircraft (1975), Tank (1974), Starship 1 (1977), Blockade (1976) and Pong (1972)).[9]

The original arcade version of Space Invaders was programmed by Toshihiro Nishikado for Taito in 1978. Midway arranged to distribute the game in the United States following its success in Japan.[10] Rick Mauruer initially came up with the idea of developing a version of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600.[11] At this time in the company, games were not assigned to developers, leading to Maurer to scout local arcades for ideas and being impressed Taito's Space Invaders arcade game, specifically the sound of the game, and began developing the game on his own.[8] Mauer began developing of his version of the game in 1978.[11] He described the process of coding for the Atari 2600 as "having to unlearn every good programming practice you've learned."[11] After a few months of development to get it into a playable state the consumer division of Atari had Mauer stop progress on further work on the game. Maurer then moved on to coding Maze Craze (1980), which he thought would help him hone in his development skills for the Atari 2600.[11]

Management at Atari later noticed discovered the financial success of Taito's Space Invaders in late 1978.[8][12] Ray Kassar went to Japan in 1979 to get the rights to the game. This allowed Maurer to continue development of his version. He initially sought out a cover art designer at Atari to create the illustrations of the invaders on graph paper to use in the game. This never happened, leaving Maurer to use his own designs for the characters. Fulton's Space Invaders was initially seven kilobytes (KB) and had to be cut down. He spent three months editing his code to be able to fit on the four KB rom cartridge.[11]

Reception

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Space Invaders was released for the Atari 2600 on March 10, 1980.[17] It became a high seller in 1980, earning Atari over $100,000,000. The console version of Space Invaders, along with popular arcade games Asteroids, Missile Command and Battlezone would move Atari to a growth of $512.7 million for the year.[11]

Bill Kunkel and Frank Laney in Video found the variants on the arcade game interesting, but suggested that purists will probably focus on the original version of the game included in the release. [18] Ken Uston in his book Ken Uston's Guide to Buying and Beating the Home Video Games (1982) declared the version of the game as "one of Atari's best cartridges".[8] In How to Win at Video Games (1982), an anonymous reviewer stated that "Of all the available bottom-shooting games that pit you against colorful rows of descending monsters, none can compare with the one and only home version of classic arcade game".[19] In the 1983 Software Encyclopedia from Electronic Games, the game was given an overall rating of a perfect 10, noting high rankings for single-player gaming and gameplay, while only finding the games graphics and sound to be merely good.[15]

From retrospective reviews, Computer and Video Games reviewed the game in 1989 stating the graphics were low-quality by contemporary standards and while it was an "enjoyable diversion for a while" and suggested that several other games since offer more variety and excitement.[14] In an overview of the game in Retro Gamer (2007), a reviewer commented that the game did not resemble the Space Invaders that players knew, but it had so many qualities that and was still challenging and exciting game.[6] In the magazines list of the top 25 Atari 2600 games, Stuart Hunt and Darran Jones listed Space Invaders in at their 14th spot, writing that it "may not have been able to successfully emulate its arcade peer, but its vast amount of options arguable made it just as good a game."[20] Weiss awarded the game a perfect five star rating for online game database AllGame.[13] He later included the game in his book The 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987 (2014) describing that the changes made from the original made it an even better game, such as the simultaneous two-player mode and various alternative gameplay modes that allowed for zig-zagging objects and invisible enemies.[2][21]

Legacy

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Electronic Games magazine said the release of Space Invaders led to Atari's dominance in the home video game market in 1980 with the Atari 2600 (pictured)."[4]

Prior to the release of Space Invaders, the sales of the Atari Video Computer System were described as "respectable, if not spectacular" while the release of the game led to what Edward B. Driscoll, Jr. of Poptronics described as making not just Atari, but "the whole home videogame industry", have its killer app."[22] The game went on to becomes one of the best-selling games for the Atari 2600, with Atari video game designer Larry Kaplan saying that the console "was not doing that well -- there were only a few million in the field, and it looked like it was dying -- then Space Invaders came out, and bam! It exploded."[11][23] The Winter 1981 issue of Electronic Games reported that this console release of Space Invaders led to Atari's dominance in the home video game market and that it was the one title that "sold the entire [Atari 2600] system in many cases."[4] Atari 2600 sales quadrupled following the game's release.[24]

The success of the game led to Atari rescheduling their entire Atari 2600 line-up from being released during the holiday season to being released throughout the year. The company also began to focus on translating many arcade hits to the Atari 2600, starting with Missile Command in 1981.[11] Following the financial success of Space Invaders, Maurer himself was compensated with a $11,000 bonus.[11] He was working in Atari's coin-op division developing a game with vector graphics that was to be a color version of Asteroids (1979), but he stopped working on the game and left Atari. Maurer's code was picked up later by Owen Rubin and developed into an arcade game Space Duel (1982).[25]

Along with bringing their own arcade hits to the Atari 2600, Atari also focused on licensing other popular arcade games to their console as they had with Space Invaders.[26] Along with their own arcade games like Asteroids and Super Breakout, Atari would enter an agreement to license several of Namco's arcade titles in the United States in 1981 and in 1982, Atari received a four-year contract to distribute all current and future Centuri arcade games outside of the arcade systems.[11][27]

A special version of the game titled Pepsi Invaders (1983) was produced at Atari that was given at to employees of the Coca-Cola Company at a sales convention in 1983.[28] Rob Fulop would translate his own version of Space Invaders to the Atari 8-bit computers.[29] Fulop's version also had unique elements to it, such as the invaders marching out of a rocket ship on the left side of the screen.[30] In 2004, a hack titled Space Invader Deluxe for the Atari 2600 was released which included cutscenes and color schemes similar to Space Invaders Part II (1979), using an extra 4K of rom to add a title screen and higher sound quality.[28]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lapetino 2016, p. 115.
  2. ^ a b c Weiss 2014, p. 195.
  3. ^ Montfort 2006.
  4. ^ a b c Laney, Jr. 1981, p. 32.
  5. ^ a b Atari, Inc. 1980.
  6. ^ a b c Retro Gamer 2007, p. 25.
  7. ^ Montfort & Bogost 2009, p. 154.
  8. ^ a b c d Weiss 2014, p. 196.
  9. ^ Montfort & Bogost 2009, p. 7.
  10. ^ GameSpy.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Fulton 2008.
  12. ^ Goldberg & Vendel 2012, p. 512.
  13. ^ a b Weiss.
  14. ^ a b Computer and Video Games 1989, p. 72.
  15. ^ a b Katz 1983, pp. 30–31.
  16. ^ Video Games Player 1982, pp. 62–63.
  17. ^ Kunkel & Laney 1980, p. 18.
  18. ^ How to Win at Video Games 1982, p. 57.
  19. ^ Jones & Hunt 2008, p. 28.
  20. ^ Weiss 2014, p. 197.
  21. ^ Driscoll, Jr. 2002, p. 24.
  22. ^ Buchanan 2008.
  23. ^ Goldberg 2012, p. 30.
  24. ^ Goldberg & Vendel 2012, pp. 523–524.
  25. ^ Goldberg & Vendel 2012, p. 513.
  26. ^ Corderi 1982.
  27. ^ a b Retro Gamer 2007, p. 26.
  28. ^ Goldberg & Vendel 2012, p. 276.
  29. ^ Hickey, Jr. 2021, p. 34.

Notes

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  1. ^ The system was initially released as the Atari Video Computer System. It became known as the Atari 2600 only after the release of the Atari 5200 in 1982.[3]

Sources

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  • Buchanan, Levi (August 26, 2008). "Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games". IGN. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  • Corderi, Victoria (February 19, 1982). "Home Video Addicts to Get Centuri's Games". The Miami News. p. 10A.
  • Driscoll, Jr., Edward B. (August 1, 2002). "The Atari 2600: The Cartridge Family Rides Again". Poptronics. Vol. 3, no. 7. ISSN 1526-3681.
  • Fulton, Steve (August 20, 2008). "Atari: The Golden Years -- A History, 1978-1981". Game Developer. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  • Goldberg, Marty (2012). "Inside the Atari 2600". Retro Gamer. No. 103. Imagine Publishing. ISSN 1742-3155.
  • Goldberg, Marty; Vendel, Curt (2012). Atari Inc.: Business is Fun. Syzygy Company Press. ISBN 978-0-9855974-0-5.
  • Hickey, Jr., Patrick (2021). The Minds Behind Shooter Games: Interviews with Cult and Classic Video Game Developers. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4766-8273-0.
  • Jones, Darran; Hunt, Stuart (2008). "Top 25 Atari 2600 Games". Retro Gamer. No. 46. Imagine Publishing. p. 28. ISSN 1742-3155.
  • Katz, Arnie, ed. (1983). "Atari 2600 (VCS)". Electronic Games 1983 Software Encyclopedia. Vol. 1, no. 1. Reese Publications.
  • Kunkel, Bill; Laney, Frank (October 1980). "Arcade Alley: A Critical Look at Video Cartridge Games & Programs". Video. Vol. 4, no. 7. ISSN 0147-8907.
  • Laney, Jr., Frank, ed. (Winter 1981). "Can Asteroids Conquer Space Invaders?". Electronic Games. Vol. 1, no. 1. Reese Publishing.
  • Lapetino, Tim (2016). Art of Atari. Dynamite Entertainment. ISBN 978-1-5241-0103-9.
  • Montfort, Nick (December 2006). "Combat in Context". Game Studies. 6 (1). ISSN 1604-7982. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  • Montfort, Nick; Bogost, Ian (2009). Racing the Beam. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01257-7.
  • Weiss, Brett Alan. "Space Invaders". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
  • Weiss, Brett (2014). The 100 Greatest Console Video Games 1977-1987. Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7643-4618-7.
  • Space Invaders: Atari Game Program Instructions. Atari, Inc. 1980. C016943-32 REV. 2.
  • "Atari Brings Space Invaders Home". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 24, 2004. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  • "The Definitive Space Invaders". Retro Gamer. No. 41. Imagine Publishing. 2007. ISSN 1742-3155.
  • "Space Invaders". United States Copyright Office. Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
  • "Space Invaders". How to Win at Video Games. Vol. 1, no. 3. Publications International. December 1982.
  • "Software Report Card". Video Games Player. Vol. 1, no. 1. United States: Carnegie Publications. September 1982.
  • "Complete Games Guide" (PDF). Computer and Video Games. No. Complete Guide to Consoles. October 16, 1989. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 5, 2021.
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